OK, I know a lot of folks will pass this up, if they haven't already seen it. It's called Celestia. Nut that I can be, I followed the link I saw, I forget where, and decided to give it a shot. You will have to download and install it. The link takes you to several possible mirror sites. The NY, NY mirror downloaded in seconds through my cable connection. It's free, open source, I think.
If you take the time to figure it out - and we're talking time, not seconds - it's pretty freaking amazing. The graphics are not George Lucas by any means, but the concept is very compelling. In essence, you are in a model of the universe. Sun, moon, earth, stars, planets, something like 100,000 of them I believe spanning light years. If you learn to control it you can navigate anywhere within the universe you wish.
Because you control space and time (IF you learn the navigation) you can travel in real time - orbit the earth - jack it up above the speed of light and zip to jupiter - the moon, stars I never heard of etc. Swing by the sun, home in on it if you wish - set book marks. Anyway, there is likely better out there but it was cool and if you are willing to spend some time with it - it has a good readme and web links explaining the places you visit, etc. Hey, what else are you going to do - read another NYT's article? Give it a shot.
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